1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan and its connecting device, and particularly, to a hot swap fan module including a hot swap fan and its connecting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic products per se, during operation, will generate heat which, in turn, raises the environmental temperature in the whole system, and thus causes reduction in the stability of the system or even failure of the system. Consequently, heat dissipation device must be used so that the system may operate at a stable environmental temperature. The most commonly used heat dissipation device is heat dissipation fan. Besides, for avoiding stoppage in the operation of the whole system so as to meet a non-stop operation requirement upon replacing a failed heat dissipation fan, a heat dissipation fan capable of hot swap has been developed.
Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 472917 disclosed a system (a server) of a drawer type hot swap fan wherein a hot swap fan module, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a supporting frame 11, a hot swap fan 12, and a plug-in circuit board 13. The hot swap fan 12 is mounted to the supporting frame 11 by plastic rivets 14, and the plug-in circuit board 13 is fastened to the supporting frame 11 by screws 15. The supporting frame 11 includes stainless leaf spring 16 for fixing the supporting frame 11 to the system (not shown). Between the hot swap fan 12 and a hot swap circuit board (not shown) mounted on the system, hot swap may be conducted by use of the plug-in circuit board 13.
According to the above conventional hot swap fan structure, since the hot swap fan 12 is completely wrapped by the supporting frame 11, and the plug-in circuit board 13 projects outwards from the supporting frame 11 for connecting the system, the size of the whole hot swap fan module is larger than that of the fan per se, and thus its volume cannot be effectively reduced. When space restriction is required on the system side, this requirement cannot be met. Besides, since the above conventional hot swap fan structure includes many comprising members, it will not only cause increment in the managing cost and the number of assembling steps of its comprising members, but also raises the risk of occurrence of defective products.
Summing up the above, it still remains unsolved how to effectively reduce the overall volume of a hot swap fan module and simplify the comprising members and the assembling process thereof.